Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have become mainstream products of existing flat panel displays due to their characteristics of small volume, low power consumption, no radiation, and the like. Liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal display can rotate under the effect of an electric field to change an amount of light transmission through a corresponding pixel unit, thereby realizing image display.
Both a traditional in-plane switching (IPS) LCD and a traditional fringe field switching (FFS) LCD have a wide viewing angle, but have a poor light transmission performance. If it is desired that the traditional IPS-LCD and the traditional FFS-LCD have both a wide viewing angle and a high light transmittance, a process resulting in a line width, a cell gap (i.e., a gap in a liquid crystal cell formed by aligning and assembling an array substrate and a color substrate), and the like must have a high accuracy, which makes the process be difficult to be carried out and makes the process result in a low rate of qualified product.
Specifically, in a case of low gray level display, a fringe electric field formed between electrodes of an IPS-LCD is very weak, and only a plane electric field formed therebetween takes effect, which is equivalent to the case that only a plane electric field is formed therebetween. Thus, a light transmittance of the IPS-LCD is affected and very low. However, a fringe electric field of a FFS-LCD is stronger than the plane electric field of the IPS-LCD. Thus, in a case of low gray level display, a light transmittance of the FFS-LCD is higher than that of the IPS-LCD.
In contrast, in a case of high gray level display, a plane electric field formed between electrodes of the FFS-LCD is weak, and only a fringe electric field formed therebetween takes effect, which is equivalent to the case that only the fringe electric field is formed therebetween. Thus, a light transmittance of the FFS-LCD is affected and very low. However, a plane electric field of the IPS-LCD is stronger than the fringe electric field of the FFS-LCD. Thus, in a case of high gray level display, a light transmittance of the IPS-LCD is higher, whereas a light transmittance of the FFS-LCD is lower.
In view of the foregoing, a new display mode, which can meet the requirement of wide viewing angle and significantly increase light transmittances in various display states (e.g., a low gray level display state and a high gray level display state), is urgently needed at present.